


Danganronpa: Yoi Otoshi O

by dearlyskies



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 11:07:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24968698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearlyskies/pseuds/dearlyskies
Summary: Graduates of Hopes Peak Academy have gone on a vacation together as a class but things have gone horribly wrong. Half of the guest list seems to be missing.





	1. Prologue

"We vote the blackened to be Kaguya Yamamoto."

Children are standing in a court room. Upon the stand is the blue haired woman in her golden yukata, the judge is missing, replaced with a mechanical bird. There is no other person on the other side of the judge's stand except for the photo of a now dead child.

"Is that your final answer?" the Phoenix asks, spreading her wings wide into both sides of the courtroom. "Know you that changing your answer is not an option once the decision has been locked in."

The leader of the children, a black haired girl with silver eyes, nodded her head confidently up at the fire bird, her grip tight on the railing separating her from the other woman. "Her acts of murder have been thoroughly explained and the jury has decided on such."

The bird raised her head up high, flapping her wings twice before folding them up onto her sides once again. "You are correct... however you were unable to find the answer within the time limit. And so time starts again."

A bright red flash of light fills the courtroom, all of the children covering their eyes in an attempt to refuse the punishment.


	2. Arc 0: Chapter 1

Ayaka Shinna - Ultimate Medium - 17 years old

The girl woke up tucked quietly into a traditional Japanese bed. She looked around, fixing her hair into two buns atop her head, noting the tatami room with a tea drinking area and a small closet. She was the only other person in the room despite there being three other beds arranged around the large room.

To one side of the room was a window that looked out into a thick forest of bamboo, a few bugs could be found climbing the stalks, stopping, then continuing. Ayaka turned away from the window, opening the closet to find a yukata she could wear for the day, the design a black and white painting of Fuji in the style of Hokusai. She slipped it onto her frail body, tied up the obi lazily and approached the door.

She first listened quietly to the outside in an attempt to find out if there were other inhabitants of the area. Silence. The door slowly opened, revealing a hallway of other identical doors, some had a blood stain and others had ink stains. This concerned the girl but she made her way out of the hallway, into another, and towards what she assumed to be the lobby.

Once again, there was no one. The lobby had a welcome area where sneakers and flip flops could be found. To the right was the check-in desk, and the left had a souvenir shop filled with sweets, coin purses, and other interesting items. Behind her was an actual lounge area with chairs and sofas and TVs. The wall was a large window with tape crossing it in x patterns. Beyond the tape, one could see yet more bamboo and then a bamboo divider. 

Ayaka went onwards, past the lobby and continued along to another hallway. There she found a bathing and changing area divided for men and then for women. She figured that the dividers gave some hot springs some privacy, at least the outside ones. 

She entered the women's side of the changing room and bathing areas. One wall held a tall shelf with weaved baskets in each cube, nothing inside any of them except for a towel. The side walls had evenly spaced shower heads that could be detached from the wall, a bucket and a stool beneath each head. Finally, the remaining half of the room was the hot spring, the sulfuric smell permeating out of it and towards Ayaka's nose. Her head looked away to find the door to the outside onsen, also completely glass like the rest of the far wall, covered in tape.

The Medium left the bathing area and continued further down the hall to discover a banquet hall. It struck her as odd to find such a hall in what seemed to be a hotel for onsens but she decided not to further question it. There was no smell of food in the room and no evidence of a banquet on the tables. She wondered if there were any others in this... hotel was the best she could make out of it, there was no way she would have a house as grandiose as this one.

Within moments, Ayaka entered the kitchen and heard the shuffling of food somewhere deep inside the food rooms. She opened the door to the room to find a male teenager rummaging through the boxes and containers of food. “Uhm... excuse me?” Ayaka called out from the doorway.

He looked at her briefly over his shoulder then continued. “What’s up? You also looking for food? If so, you’re gonna have to cook it, nothing prepared or packaged in here since you don’t look to be the type of person that eats sweets,” he explained while still pushing aside all the containers of ingredients without knocking them to the floor. At least he has a sense of preservation...

“I actually wanted to know if you have met anyone else here? My room had two other beds but they weren’t used, maybe yours was the same?” the Medium asked, peeking around to study the kitchen which was definitely used by a large staff to prepare for special events.

The other teenager stopped his abusing of the shelves to approach Ayaka, looking closely at her face and her clothes. It was only then that Ayaka noticed that this boy had only some form of pants on as well as socks. He had black, messy hair that curled at the ends and moved lightly with his every action. “You’re small,” he remarked at her before pushing past her into the kitchen. “Yeah, I met some guys, they decided to go chill out in the game room or whatever. No girls... which is a shame. So, who are you? Do you want me to help me with your belt? You look like you’ve never worn something like this before.”  
Though Ayaka felt like she should take offense to his words, she crossed her arms and followed him out the kitchen and into the dining room. “My name is Ayaka Shinna and I’m the Ultimate Medium and no I don’t need any help with my belt, I’m just fine, thank you for offering.”

“You seem quite proud of yourself, you should keep your talent a secret around here. I know a bit about you but these guys probably don’t care, something seriously disgusting has happened.”

The two exited the dining room quickly, proceeded back the way they came and went towards the hallway to Ayaka’s room. “I’m Kenta Saito, Ultimate Punk Singer,” he said before stopping in the middle of the hallway, turning abruptly to the left and kicking a certain section of the wall. Before the Medium could scold Kenta, a door opened slowly like some kind of secret hide out. “You should kick all the walls in your room. I found a few secret rooms like this game room just by kicking everything.”

Beyond the door was a set of stairs leading down to where a pool table and some arcade machines were visible. Games could be heard from the back of the room where three other teenage boys were playing, some kind of white controller in their hands as they yelled at one another. Kenta went down the stairs and Ayaka followed. “Those guys are Sora Hoshino, Bara Ibara, and Kouki Ikeda. They’re all Ultimates like us but none of them remember each other before waking up today. They say they’ve heard of me but that’s about it... kind of weird, don’t you think?”

The two approached the other three, one of the playing trio pausing the game to focus their attention on the newcomer to the game lounge. The one with light blue hair nodded his head to the girl, introducing himself, “Hey there, I’m the Ultimate Astrologist Sora Hoshino. Nice to meet you.” He was pale and dressed in a knitted crop top with a moon necklace hanging down to about his navel, torn jeans and socks decorating his lower half. He had quite blank grey eyes and both of his ears were decorated with star earrings.

Another, with red-brown hair and darker tan skin bowed his head. He had green eyes which matched his green knit sweater and green socks, white sweatpants rolled up over his ankles. “Ultimate Flower Language Expert, Bara Ibara. Pleased to meet you, lady.” The last one snickered.

“Hiya, I’m Kouki Ikeda,” he said with a smirk on his face, lilac hair covering one of his eyes. He had various bandages and silver piercings on his face, an oversized pastel pink cardigan covered his bare chest. Otherwise, he wore puffy shorts and had no socks on his feet. “And you are?”

Ayaka bowed before the three boys. “I am Ayaka Shinna, an Ultimate like you... but I’d like to keep my talent a secret for now. I don’t want people to abuse it like before.” The three of them seemed to beam at her, excited to know more about her but Kenta cleared his throat.

“So, I’m gonna keep looking for other people. They might have found a secret room like I did but who knows? See ya, I’m taking Ayaka with me, don’t get into trouble. I think there’s a vending machine in here somewhere if you get thirsty.” And with that, Kenta turned right around, gesturing for Ayaka to follow him as he left the room. She simply bowed again and scurried away.

Kenta was waiting for Ayaka at the top of the stairs in the hallway, looking around the hallway. “You’re not going to barge into the other rooms, are you? That’s... not a great idea, I can sense something horrible if you did break in.”

He shrugged at her and then went into the hallway of all the rooms and turned to the left, the direction which Ayaka had come from. “Nah, I’ve no reason to break in. I just wanted to see something about the rooms here since this is a hotel,” he explained as he studied one of the doors that had blood on it. He scratched it delicately with his fingernails and some of it chipped off but the door was deeply stained already. Kenta knocked on the door, looking everywhere to see if there was some way to determine if the room was occupied or not.

Feet shuffled inside then the door opened. A person stood there in the doorway, their hair a purple-red colour, skin as white as copy paper, and their eyes were golden with brown freckles. They looked at Kenta with something like confusion as they tried to understand his reason for not wearing a shirt. “Do you... need something?” they spoke before having turned her attention to Ayaka.

The Medium had trouble understanding whether this person was male or female or something... she was usually able to tell if someone leaned more feminine or masculine just by reading their aura but this person was different. “Hello, I am Ayaka Shinna and this is Kenta... uhm... Kenta Saito. We were wondering if there was anyone aside from yourself in this room.”

The person laughed then stood aside for the two outside to see the room almost completely empty except for a tea table and a singular futon on the floor. They didn’t even touch the clothes that were neatly folded up in front of the tea table, which made Ayaka notice this person was wearing a flimsy piece of black cloth twisted and tied up to make something like a crop top as well as shorts and... is that a garterbelt? Ayaka tried to hide her concern but failed which rewarded her another laugh from the person. “I’m Chise Mura, Wiccan, and I’m the only inhabitant of this room. I’d like to keep it that way... at least for a little while,” they said with something like a lustful smirk on their lips as they stared down at Ayaka.

Kenta blocked the two from each other before a fight broke out. “Well, we’ll be on our way, then. Thank you for opening your door, Chise,” he said with a smile before he led Ayaka to the next door.

This door had an ink stain on it, nothing more to investigate there. Once again, Kenta knocked on the door and waited a moment. A girl with blonde hair and pale skin opened the door, making Ayaka question if any of these people actually go into the daylight. This girl, unlike the others, seemed to have just woken up and was dressed in pajamas. She rubbed her eyes then studied Ayaka and Kenta. “Uh... hi?”

Kenta smiled down at the girl who was about the same height as Ayaka. “Hi there, is anyone else in this room with you?” he asked, straight to the point with his question.

“Um, no... just me,” she said with a yawn. “Who are you?”

“I’m Kenta, and this is Ayaka. We’re trying to find out how many people are here in this hotel with us.”

“Ah... is it a hotel? That’s neat... if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to sleep now...” And she closed the door right in their faces. Ayaka just looked at Kenta questioningly before she moved along.

Another door, similar to the last with an ink stain on it. Ayaka knocked on the door just loud enough to get the attention of anyone inside. It opened much quicker than the last one, a girl with blonde hair shining like gold opening it up with a smile. “Hi there! Nice to meet you! I heard you from inside here so you don’t need to repeat yourself. I’m Mayuki Ota, Ultimate Mangaka, maybe you’ve heard of my works under the name of ‘MayuP’?”

Kenta was taken aback by how eager this girl was. “Don’t you write those d-”

“Nice to meet you!” Ayaka exclaimed with a bow. Though she had a vague memory of reading the name, she wasn’t actually familiar with anything this girl made. “Is there anyone in this room aside from yourself?”

The girl with gold hair shook her head. “Sadly, no. I’m the only person here. I’ve just been trying to get back to sleep, not that I mind the intrusion. I think there’s two other girls? I heard one of them roaming around here earlier. You should check on them,” she said with a wink before she gently closed the door. 

Without much hesitation, the two continued to the next door and did the same routine. Asked for the girl’s name and whether she had someone else in her room. Her name was Wilhelmina Grimm, and she was an expert on fairy tales. Her hair was also a gold colour like Mayuki’s was, but she had a completely different vibe about herself... Wilhelmina was much more earthy and light about everything which was a complete contrast to Mayuki’s modern and civic nature.

As for the girl that followed after Wilhelmina...

“What do you want?” answered the girl inside the last room. She had extremely long, sky blue hair and her light brown eyes seemed to pierce Ayaka’s soul. White framed glasses sat upon her nose as she looked between the two, black cotton gloves on her hands, wearing a brown vest over a black, button-up shirt, white slacks tucked neatly into black worker’s boots. “Hurry up, out with it.”

Kenta was visibly disturbed by this girl for some reason as he frowned for a brief second. “Hiya! I’m Kenta Saito and this is Ayaka Shinna, we were wondering if you’re the only person in this room.”

The girl fixed her glasses then sighed. “There’s three of us in here. It’s me and two other girls but I don’t care to introduce them to you. You look like a pervert. The girl can come in and meet them if she wants.”

Kenta seemed hesitant but stepped aside so the Medium could enter the room. She was met by two very different girls. One had dark skin, the shade of a certain mainstream coffee company, purple-red hair tied up in a bun, golden eyes, and was dressed quite casually. It looked like half pajamas, half outside wear. Two large earrings in the shape of diamonds hung off of her ear lobes. “Yo,” she said before going back to her tea.

The other girl had a fair skin tone with pale blue eyes shielded behind round eyeglasses. Her purple hair was tied up into two quite large buns on each side of her head and she wore a brown, knit sweater and black sweatpants. “Uh, hi...”

The girl who opened the door addressed Ayaka once more. “I’m Kaguya Yamamoto, the one drinking tea is Yuito Minami, and the nervous one is Nanami Saito.”

Ayaka looked between Kaguya and Nanami. “Saito...? Do you have a brother, Nanami?”

She nodded her head. “Uh, yeah... he sings and he’s really famous... I’m just a meagre cryptozoologist... please don’t mind me...”

“Huh... that’s good to know. I guess I should head out then.” None of the girls attempted to stop Ayaka as she walked right out of the room, the door shutting abruptly behind her. Kenta stood up from the floor looking at her with worry. “Your sister’s in there but I don’t think the girl’s going to let us in again, at least not for a little while.”

“My sister’s in there!? I haven’t seen her in years! How did she end up here, though?”

“Beats me... we should go see the rest of this hotel, though. It’s kind of weird to see only girls and four of you guys in here, there’s almost no balance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have so many things and projects I have planned such as a comic I will be posting to Webtoon called Expletive, and I also have a LOT of other art projects that I would love to share with you all!
> 
> If you'd like to keep up to date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter (@dearlyskies)!  
> Yoi Otoshi O also has a tumblr where you can see all the characters as I finish their art! (dr-yoiotoshio.tumblr.com)!


	3. Arc 0: Chapter 2

After a bit of back and forth, Ayaka and Kenta have continued along to the other half of the hallway. The Punk Singer was hesitant to continue after hearing the news that his sister was behind the last door but was forced to move on.

The first door they came up to was wide open with both a blood and ink stain on it. The inside was neatly cleaned up as if waiting for more occupants to move in temporarily. Kenta decided to enter the room just to be sure, opened the closet hastily then left when he found nothing of importance.

The door following was where Kenta had apparently woken up in. “It’s just me. There were five beds laid out but I was the only one in there, which felt extremely odd. The other three were in the rooms after me but I didn’t finish looking in the other rooms.”

“Not to worry, I understand that your stomach sometimes has needs you can’t completely control,” Ayaka responded with a shrug as she continued four doors down.

Kenta got in front of Ayaka when she knocked, just in case this room proved to be filled with some idiot who would rage on anyone who decided to disturb him. Instead, a girl even shorter than Ayaka opened the door. She had brown hair which seemed to be rather fake and was adorned in a rather distracting dress with various things sewn into it and hanging off of it. She had one brown eye and one blue eye but her skin was as white as snow. “Greetings,” she said with a smile.

Kenta looked between her and the rest of the hallway before responding, “Hi, I’m Kenta Saito and this is Ayaka Shinna... are you aware this is the mens’ section of the hotel?”

The girl nodded, a smile still bright on her face. “Yes, sir. I am very much aware, however this is where I woke up. It is just me and my boyfriend in this room, if you were wondering.”

Ayaka spoke up as she got into full view of the girl slightly shorter than her. “By the way, what’s your name and talent, you seem extremely familiar. And your boyfriend’s as well.”

“Ah, of course! My name is Aria Angeline, the Ultimate Lolita. I run a small shop on the streets of Harajuku. There is a jewelry shop on one side with a tiny tarot stall on the other side, if you were wondering. As for my boyfriend, his name is Ren Ota and he is the Ultimate Nail Technician. He runs a shop in a small town a bit further away from Harajuku but it does still get rather busy on his end.”

“Hm, I see... my shop must not be far away from yours, that might be why I recognize you...” Ayaka muttered. “Anyhow, it is a pleasure to meet you, Aria Angeline.”

“Oh, not at all! The pleasure is all mine! Now, if you will excuse me, I am needed to help Ren with his outfit. Do stay safe in this hotel of ours!” And with that, the door was closed. They didn’t get to see this Ren that Aria was so fond of but they had no choice but to believe her.

Kenta looked somehow awkward for the entire exchange but moved along without hesitation. He sighed before knocking on the next door which was decorated with ink. This one seemed to be more artistic rather than just spilled liquid.

A taller teen with black hair falling on either side of his face and glasses opened the door, looking down at Kenta and then Ayaka. “So you’re the one making all the noise. Nice to meet you, I’m Fujino. Now, leave me be,” he muttered before he slammed the door shut.

The Medium looked shocked before she moved along. Just as before, the final door was knocked on, this one decorated only in a small splatter of blood on the very bottom corner of the door. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes opened the door dressed in pink and blue pajamas. He was about the same height as Kenta but was also slouched over a small bit. “Can I... can I help you?” he asked meekly as he looked at the other man’s bare chest. “Do you... shave your chest?”

“Name’s Kenta and this is Ayaka, are there any others in your room with you? We’re trying to get a headcount and figure out what’s going on is all.”

“Uh, uh... yeah. It’s me and two other guys in here... they’re Misao and, um... Fujino. One’s an Undertaker and the other is a Marine Biologist, I don’t remember... um... which is which...” The blonde boy paused for a moment before he seemed the light up again. “Oh, I’m Daichi, a Confectioner. Is that... is that all? I’m afraid Mako will... hit me if I don’t let him sleep...”

“Yeah, not a problem. You guys enjoy your day,” the Punk Singer responded, waving him goodbye before he went down the hall and to the lobby, Ayaka came close behind him. “I’ve searched this entire place, the only rooms in this hotel are over there and they all seem to be traditional. Unless someone has a secret room, that’s everyone in here. I still don’t understand why we’re here, all of these Ultimates in one place...”

Ayaka sat on one of the couches in the lobby and invited Kenta to join her. “It’s probably nothing horrible. I mean, the amount of Ultimates in the world isn’t really plentiful and it doesn’t even seem like the nature around us is all that disturbed.” She took a moment to think, she mentally went back into each room as if something was off. “Though, I didn’t see a clock in any of the rooms, I can tell it’s still morning. From the fact that you were hungry and all these people are still waking up, I would say it’s already about nine or ten in the morning.”

“Jeez, I thought I was pretty smart but that you figured that out from however long you’ve been awake and looking around, you’ve got me beat.”

“It’s nothing, really. I was asked to help on various murder cases while I was still just a student in the Academy for Ultimates and the detectives there helped me learn more about my surroundings whenever I was hired for cases. They were... really nice people,” she remarked, almost sad as she reminisced on those times.

The lobby was silent for a few moments, only the distant yelling of the three other teenage boys playing video games could be heard every so often through the wall they hid behind. “So, do you remember the Academy, then?”

“Not really, actually. I can’t remember my classmates, my friends, or the staff. I only remember my free time outside of classes... What did they teach there? Why was I there? Very odd...”

“Right...” Kenta heaved another sigh before he slouched deeper into the chair he sat in. “You’re the same as the rest of us, then. We can’t remember anything, just our activities outside of class... Even if class was boring, if it were, you would think anyone would at least remember the faces of their peers. I only remember stages and streets.”

Ayaka knew she had to lie to Kenta at this moment just so he wouldn’t get down about something he didn’t even know about. She smelled death in the air as they explored but it seemed as if no one else noticed it. “Don’t worry, though! We’ll be fine, I’m sure of it!”

The boy laughed as he stood right back up. “You know how to cook, by chance? I might be able to make something but I don’t know if it’ll be any good.”

A few seconds went by as Ayaka hesitated. “I can make omelettes...? If that counts?”

“If it’s food, it counts. Let’s get back to that kitchen.”

\--

Breakfast for the two was served after they both flailed in the kitchen for twenty minutes. Though everything looked familiar, it wasn’t organized in a way that made sense. While Ayaka made omelettes and some pancakes with what she found, Kenta went to work on reorganizing everything. The food gave off the scent of being delicious but both doubted the taste just by the appearance.

“I’m sorry...” Ayaka apologized as she picked at the mutilated omelette before she actually cut apart a piece and put it in her mouth. “But it’s decent, believe it or not. Definitely not on the level of what would usually be served here but it’s edible and it tastes like home.”

The other reluctantly put a small piece of the pancake in his mouth and waited for an awful taste to take over his tongue but it didn’t. He was genuinely surprised and took more and more bites until one of his pancakes was gone. “What do you mean? This is great! Better than what they give me on the road in the bus!” It almost looked like Kenta was about to shed tears over some food but he had held himself back from full on crying.

Ayaka was a bit shocked at what her new friend was saying. “Well, I’m happy that you like it? This is just whatever I make at home,” she explained as she continued to eat her food. “Do you really think that’s everyone? It feels weird that all of these rooms were just so large and yet there were only two rooms that had more than one person.”

“Mmmyeah, it’s definitely weird but I can’t really care a whole lot more than I am caring... I mean, to hear that my sister is alright and in this hotel with me? That’s great and that’s pretty much all I can care about right now.” The black haired boy continued to eat his food until it was all gone. “You got siblings?”

“No, it was just me and my mother my whole life. I can’t say I wanted siblings either. It seemed like I was cursed with bad luck so I wouldn’t want to bring other people down with me,” she said with a shrug. The girl looked around the dining hall, now able to inspect the table even closer. Still, there were no signs of use, it looked like it was cleaned recently.

As the two stood up to clean the dishes they had dirtied, a speaker lowered from the ceiling in all corners of the room. Someone cleared their throat into the speakers then made their announcement...

“All guests, please meet in the front of the hotel, outside the doors of the lobby. We will now be having an emergency meeting, failure to comply will result in termination. Any messes made will be cleaned while you are away, please proceed to the front of the hotel at once.” After some static when the message had completed, the speakers retreated back into the ceiling.

Ayaka’s eyes met with Kenta’s as they agreed to leave their dishes right where they were and hurried to the lobby. It was the same as before and all of the other guests of the hotel shuffled along to the outside just as the two were doing. At the front of the group were the three boys that were playing video games in the secret game lounge, whereas in the back was someone neither Ayaka or Kenta had met: a short, brown-haired boy with dark circles under his eyes and bandages covering almost all of his hand.

“Let’s go, then...” the girl muttered, being the last to leave the doors to the outside.

In front of all the guests was some odd mechanical bird that made weird buzzing noises. With his electronic voice, he gave orders. “If we could please have everyone arrange themselves by height with the shortest in the front and the tallest in the back, that would be wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you for cooperating, thank you.” Now that Ayaka was in the front, she had a better view of the bird: a crane with nuts and bolts, springs were just barely visible between the cut out feathers decorating it’s wings that it used to usher all the guests to their spots.

“Ahem, ahem... now then, if we are all gathered, which I believe we are missing one still but that is fine as they will be terminated once we have finished, I would like to make an announcement to everyone gathered here.” Despite being no more than a machine, it sounded quite human. The speaker popped every once in a while when certain words were spoken which made it sound like an older machine. “Ahem, ahem... Welcome to the ‘End of the World Hotel’! You see, all of you were graduates of a certain ahem Hope’s Peak Academy and you were invited to this hotel as a graduation gift ahem. Unfortunately for you, I can’t really let you live her all carefree-like. However, ahem, ahem, I am allowed to give you two more days of your happy, sugar and rainbows life! So please enjoy!”

One of the girls, the shortest one which Ayaka could remember being named Aria, spoke up. “Excuse me, Mr. Crane? If I may, what will happen after these two days have passed?”

The machine crane’s eyes moved around separately like an iguana’s eyes before focusing on the girl. “Ahem, ahem... Aria Angeline, Graduate Nineteen, after the two days, my boss has decreed that you will be killing each other. There are rules for these things, ahem, which you will find in your phones in your room once we are finished here. Don’t be alarmed! You won’t die all at once since one of you is already quite the murderer and another of you has escaped the punishment of another facility... Ahem! There is a maximum of two deaths per killing period! I don’t think, ahem, you should kill more than one person per period as that just makes it easier for you to be found out, ahem. Anyway! Please enjoy your final two days of your nice life! Farewell, my esteemed guests!”

Before anyone could have protested, the mechanical crane raised its wings and flapped away with the help of some jets on the underside of his feet. The guests milled about as they spoke quietly to themselves which allowed time for Ayaka to force her way through the crowd. This is odd, this is way too strange... she thought to herself as she reentered the lobby.

The Medium was just seconds away from going to her room when her attention was caught by an addition to the lobby: an electronic bulletin board was now taped, stapled, and drilled into one of the windows that overlooked the garden. It only had one thing on it: a timer that ticked down. It read “47 hours remain”. Immediately, Ayaka poked her head back into the outside to grab Kenta and dragged him to the new bulletin board at once.

“This wasn’t here before. I think we need to keep an eye on it as time passes,” Ayaka remarked, studying the board closely. “Have you heard of anything like this whatever that crane was talking about? I certainly haven’t.”

“No, this is something completely new to me, too. It takes one seriously messed up person to make this kind of thing and actually pull it off. It’s gross...” Kenta rubbed his eyes before he went along to his room.

Guests returned inside one by one, forcing Ayaka to also return to her hotel room. The hallways seemed like they were much more cleaned up than before, the dried blood being removed from each of the doors but the stains remained. She opened her door without a problem and went inside to see that there was indeed a phone in her room stacked neatly on top of some regular clothes. The other beds that were in her room when she had woken up were now gone and her tea table had what seemed like an offering of food.

The girl sighed before she picked up the clothes and the phone. She changed right away in the tiny bathroom attached to her room, recognizing them as her own but the smell... it was horrible. Through the fresh scent of flowers, death’s scent enveloped her senses. What she needed was a headache reducer but had nothing like that in the various cabinets of the bathroom. After a few seconds, Kenta’s words rang loud in her head again.

“You should kick all the walls in your room.”

And so she did, she even went out of her way to kick the walls of the shower but nothing revealed itself to her. Her headache persisted but she left the bathroom to kick the walls of her room, praying she didn’t bother her fellow hotel guests as she did so.

Finally, in a far corner next to the window to the outside, Ayaka’s efforts were rewarded with the sound of machine work moving. She looked around the room and studied every part of it to determine that the sound came from the closet where the beds would be stored. And so it was.

Instead of there being shelves that should have been holding up futons and blankets and pillows, there was a ladder that went up. Logic evaded Ayaka’s mind as she grabbed onto one rung and proceeded up.

At the top of the ladder was what seemed to be some kind of extra room where someone could sleep. She decided that, since there wasn’t really a lock on her door, she would set up a bed up here and seek refuge here. There was a smell of candy and wood glue in the air, and it felt like someone was living in there recently but there was no evidence of such. No bed, no books or food, just the tatami flooring and a depression where someone may have been sleeping for days on end. There was no smell of death, just candy and wood glue.

She found this odd and went back down the ladder to examine the phone left with her clothes. It took a few moments for the phone to start up, a mostly black screen displaying the logo of a white, burning phoenix before it had a small selection of items: Guest Book, Hotel Map, Hotel Rules, Case Files.

The girl found the addition of ‘Case Files’ in this phone to be a bit odd, expecting that she would have to memorize anything if people were really going to kill one another. She couldn’t interact with the phone any further, however. All of the options were greyed out and came up with error messages if she tried to tap on them.  
She sighed before she stuffed the phone in her pocket. Someone knocked on her door as she did so and a very familiar voice called for her through it. “Hellooo~! Ayaka? It is Aria! I wanted to see if you would like to join me and Wilhelmina for some personal time in the onsen!”

Ayaka stumbled on herself as she rushed to the door, opening it quickly. “Ah, uh... Hello! I would be more than happy to join you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have so many things and projects I have planned such as a comic I will be posting to Webtoon called Expletive, and I also have a LOT of other art projects that I would love to share with you all!
> 
> If you'd like to keep up to date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter (@dearlyskies)!  
> Yoi Otoshi O also has a tumblr where you can see all the characters as I finish their art! (dr-yoiotoshio.tumblr.com)!


	4. Arc 0: Chapter 3

Three girls went along on their way to the womens’ side of the hot spring baths: Aria Angeline, the Ultimate Lolita, Wilhelmina Grimm, the Ultimate Fairytale Enthusiast, and Ayaka Shinna, the Ultimate Medium.

Wilhelmina’s blonde hair shone like stones under a clear river, whereas Aria shone her near platinum blonde hair as they walked along, talking as if nothing bad was going to happen to them. “Uh, by the way,” Ayaka spoke up while strolling beside the shorter of the two. “How did you figure that was my room? I thought I was alone when I went back to my room...”

Aria looked at her with a confused expression on her face but then smiled. “Oh! The tablet shows everyone where their rooms are in the hotel! But it’s a bit difficult since I do not know the symbols for everyone. I just guessed and checked!” she explained with a hint of excitement in her voice.

“I just gave Aria my tablet and she did some fiddling to make the damn thing work,” Wilhelmina said with a shrug. “Did yours not want you touching it either?”

Something felt odd about the fact that Aria figured out the device so quickly after it was revealed to all of the guests. Perhaps she was just that smart, or maybe she had some other knowledge? “Do you want me to do it for you or do you want me to walk you through it?” the small girl asked as the three stood outside the bathing room. She started to take off most of her clothing, covering most of her body with a towel as she did so, placing her clothes into a basket as she waited.

Wilhelmina did the same as Ayaka just stared at her tablet. “I’ll figure it out. I think...” she said before placing it in a basket along with her own clothes. She peeked into the bathroom before she fully entered it. “I guess we should shower before we go in the onsen.”

All the steam already in the room made it difficult for the Medium to see her new friends to either side of her but she took faith that they were still there and had begun to clean herself. She didn’t think she would be so dirty after she had just woken up maybe half a day prior but she felt incredibly refreshed after doing so, entering the indoor onsen quickly to relax herself.

“It is such a big screen for just four items, do you not think so? And they were displayed in such small text, too!” Aria explained while she sat on the edge of the onsen, dipping only her legs in while she covered the rest of her body with a towel. “Maybe that crane is hiding more than we think.”

Ayaka watched Aria carefully, not sure if she should really trust her after what she just said. “So, how did you figure it out so quickly?”

“I found a notebook under my pillow! It had instructions on what I should do to get my tablet working quickly!” she said, once again excited as she explained it. “The thing, though, was that it was signed by Ren but he seemed just as confused and surprised as I was when I read it to him. He has the same recollection as I did: We were on a date and about to leave then all of a sudden we woke up here. I know he is not lying, I can tell very easily when he is lying, but I would hope that we would never have to lie to each other.”

Wilhelmina joined Ayaka in the onsen, submerging herself up to her shoulders in the hot water. “If we got to the point where we all started to lie to each other, it would prove something about this humanity we live and grew up in, though. It’d be just like a fairytale.”

Aria finally let the rest of her body soak in the bath as she sighed, massaging her forehead. “I just think that whatever this is that is going on would go by without us having to actually do anything. Maybe we should sort of rebel to whoever put this together?”

“No... that would get us in a worse place than we began in,” Ayaka muttered, resting her chin on her hand perched up by her arm. “I’m surprised that no one else seems to be concerned about our living conditions.”

“Oh, that is right. You are a medium, correct? Then, you can sense something that the rest of us cannot?” the smaller blonde girl asked, stretching herself so that all of her body can relax in the water. “I will admit, the way that crane made this sound seems very familiar to me. Though, that should not ignite worry in you. If I were the one that set this all up, I would have chosen a different venue and I would not be willing to get myself this close to anyone.”

“I guess I can mark you as an innocent in this case, then.”

After a little while, all three girls left the bath. They rinsed themselves off before going back to the changing area and off to the lounge.

While Wilhelmina and Aria spoke about their talents, Ayaka just stared closer at her tablet. She noticed a very faint line which read, ‘Grant Access’. She tapped on it which opened up a keyboard and a box to enter some kind of code. The keyboard displayed on the screen was not the standard keyboard most people were used to, the ‘Q’, ‘A’, and ‘Z’ keys were switched around which made it so that whoever was entering the code had to be familiar with it or much more careful with those three keys in particular.

The prompt was simple: “Top?” It had many answers depending on the person who was handling it and their prior knowledge, but for Ayaka, this was not quite so easy to answer. The first answer that came to mind was something she was certain would not work.

‘bottom’

Even with no faith in her answer, it worked and the display changed. She tapped on the map, bringing it up to study it briefly before she went on to the guest book. It came up again with the map but instead of names or images correlating with each room, it came up with symbols. She had noticed it before: some of the guests had a type of sigil on their clothing or displayed somewhere near their door on the inside. She recognized her own immediately as her family crest, something she wore on her back which she drew energy from when she had to contact the dead.

Aria wore her crest as a pin in the back of her ponytail, whereas Wilhelmina did not seem to publicly display her’s. There was a possibility that it was hidden beneath the sash around her waist but there was no need to snoop. 

Ayaka tapped on her crest over her room, which pulled up some type of file including her details, her portrait, and the word “ACTIVE” in big green letters under her file. This only made her more curious as she went back to the map of crests. She tapped on the room with no crests which came up with two very short files: “Arata Kondo, INACTIVE” and “Yoishi Aoi, INACTIVE”.

She powered off the tablet and slipped it into the pocket of her jacket. Worrying about extra things before their situation even got dire would only make everything more difficult, she thought to herself before listening in to the conversation.

“Do you think we will have to make food for ourselves? I would hate to have to cook everything... I enjoy it but how many other people can actually cook as well?” Aria asked to the air while sipping on a grape drink.

Wilhelmina sighed and stretched her arms above her head. “I am more concerned about our semi-mixed living conditions. Our doors didn’t seem to have locks on them, who’s to say someone won’t do something foolish?”

“Nothing was really listed in the rules that made me think we should be worried about that. Then again, it did mention the rules were allowed to be changed at any time.”

“And that’s another thing! What’s up with these rules? We’re meant to kill each other or something? I have a life outside of this hotel I need to get to!”

Aria just shrugs, looking out the window and beyond the bulletin board, staring at the sky. “It’s getting pretty late, though. I’ll return to my room. See you tomorrow?”

Ayaka nodded her head while Wilhelmina stood up and waved to the two. The blonde girl gave the other a smile before she strolled back to the hallway. Once the lounge area was clear of other people, the Medium went into the hallway and kicked the part of the wall Ren had revealed to her as she heard the three boys continuing their gaming within.

She descended the stairs halfway and called to them. “Hey, it’s already 11pm, get some sleep!” And back she went to her room, letting the door close itself discreetly.

\--

Two days passed without many events. As it so happened, food was delivered to everyone’s doors at certain times during the day. After the first night passed, a chatting function and a social function was added onto the tablets which went unused for the rest of the day.

On the morning of the third day since everyone had woken up in the hotel, an announcement was made as speakers lowered in each room. It was the same voice as before, which grated against Ayaka’s ears like nails on a chalkboard. “All guests, please meet in the front of the hotel, outside the doors of the lobby. We will now be having a meeting, failure to comply will result in termination. Any messes made will be cleaned while you are away, please proceed to the front of the hotel at once.” After some static when the message had completed, the speakers retracted back into the ceiling.

The Medium threw her day clothes onto herself, briefly looking in the mirror to tie her hair up into a ponytail before shuffling along to the meeting place.

Outside, the weather was rather chilly, causing Ayaka to wrap her jacket around herself tightly to retain her body heat. She was the first to come to the front of the hotel, not even the mechanical crane had descended as of yet, and the other guests only slowly made their way with sleepy eyes and slow feet.

Before long, all of the guests were gathered in the cold air alongside Ayaka, but the crane was still nowhere to be found. Everyone spoke amongst themselves about dreams, feeling stiff, so on and so on. It was a long while until the machine bird finally descended from behind the hotel to the front. This made all of the guests silence themselves to see what the crane has decided to tell them so early in the morning. It looked at the crowd as if counting them with every small nod of the head, then again as it scanned from the opposite direction.

It made the sound of clearing its throat then spoke. “Still missing one that seems to have escaped punishment. That’s no good! Well, no less. Hello again, guests of ‘End of the World Hotel’! Today is the day we introduce you to our little game! It’s a game surrounded in a fog of paranoia and fear for your life! Every second could be your last, but we can’t let you just hide in your rooms like stubborn little mice so we have decided to open up new things slowly throughout the hotel for you all to enjoy!” Its head turned upside down separately from the neck, the eyes glowing a sinister colour of deep red. 

“But, it seems some of you have discovered a few secrets for yourself. No matter! We hope you will enjoy these facilities while you are alive! You will soon receive a motive for your murders on your tablet! Please look forward to it, dear guests. The phoenix awaits to see your reaction to this fun game! Goodbye now!” The mechanical crane raised its wings and flapped away with the help of some jets on the underside of his feet. The guests milled about as they spoke quietly to themselves, some left to finish their sleep while others lazily went elsewhere in the hotel.

Ayaka looked down at her tablet to look at the time. It was merely an hour until the first meal was served so it wouldn’t be worthwhile to go back to sleep. On the other hand, she hadn’t bathed or showered since she, Aria, and Wilhelmina went to onsen on the first night. Getting clean hygiene-wise was definitely not at the top of her priority list and she figured that with an invisible death countdown hanging over her head, now was as good a time as any to cleanse herself of any dirt she had picked up in the previous two days.

Since no one was around, the girl undressed in the shower room (leaving her tablet, shoes, and socks behind in a basket) in order to observe any possible markings on her body that she could not see in her room’s half mirror. She twisted and turned, pulling her skin this way and that but the only new things were many scars on her back likely for varying reasons. She had nothing to gauge how long she had been at the hotel with the other guests and so she guessed she was missing at least a month of her memory judging by the mostly healed scars.

The girl could only ponder reasons why pieces of her memory went missing: perhaps a clue to the reason all the guests are being sent to die within the hotel’s halls was sprinkled somewhere in her memory? Or maybe she was closer whoever set it up than she thought. There was also the case of the empty rooms occupied only by sigils or crests within the doors but had no living person to claim them. 

While these questions weighed on her mind, Ayaka quietly scrubbed her body, losing herself in thought as her skin turned from near white to pink to red. Other guests would likely be panicked by the idea presented to them just recently and would lock themselves up but she had a strange feeling about the rooms. The doors didn’t really have locks, anyone could come right in and kill them in their sleep or if they trusted whoever was on the other side of the door and let them in...

The door to the bathing room opened and a girl poked her head in: blonde hair, fair complexion, a little on the short side. She had one of the towels from the changing room wrapped around herself. Ayaka didn’t even realize someone was entering the room until the other girl said something. “Hiya, can I, uhm... be next to you?”

It snapped the Medium out of her stream of possibilities and back into the now. “Of course, go ahead.” She looked up at the girl, recognizing her as Utako Ikeda, the Ultimate Tarot Card Reader. “Though, there are plenty of other spaces to shower in, why next to me?”

“Oh, I wanted to confide in you something I’ve found out, actually. If that’s alright, Miss Medium,” she said, sitting beside Ayaka on one of the bathing stools and turning on the water of the shower. The black haired girl nodded her head, letting Utako continue. “I did a card reading after the meeting and I think I’m going to be the first one to go.”

“Why so? Did you have Chise with you? She’s the Ultimate Wiccan, she can probably make a potion for you, maybe you don’t have to be the first one!”

“No, I mean yes Chise was there but, uhm... I’m okay with this outcome, actually. I’m not all that useful in here so I’d prefer it to be me rather than anyone else. I drew the Hanged Man.”

“Upright?”

“That’s right.”

Ayaka felt her heart sink. She knew that she had no power to protect the living but she felt like she wanted to do anything and everything in her power not to have this be the end for someone. But, if Utako already accepted the fate, then it is what it is at that point and Ayaka had to accept it as well.

“But, uh, I also drew for everyone else in the guest list that’s alive! I generally don’t like telling people what I drew for them in secret but I think you should be prepared for this to continue for a long time... or, really, don’t try to control everything?” Utako rinsed herself off and wrapped the towel around her body. “Not that I really know anything about you but I feel like you want everything to go a certain way but it won’t.”

“That’s alright, thank you for the insight.” The Medium also wrapped herself into a towel and retrieved her items from where she placed them. “You mentioned you did the reading with Chise, did she not come here with you? I’m interested to know her thoughts on all this.”

“Oh no, we did come here together, but she said something about forgetting to bring a change of clothes and went back to her room, I think.” The Card Reader held the door open for Ayaka, letting her exit first before continuing. “I definitely thought she would have been back here by now, though. Oh well. We can hang out again another time.”

Both girls dressed themselves again, Ayaka looking at her tablet for the time. “Breakfast is going to be served here in a bit, we should get back to our rooms.”

The two walked back to the room hallway, making small talk about their jobs outside of school and what they did remember, before separating to go into their rooms respectively. The news that Utako could pin herself as the first sacrifice still shook Ayaka but she had nothing left she could do for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have so many things and projects I have planned such as a comic I will be posting to Webtoon called Expletive, and I also have a LOT of other art projects that I would love to share with you all!
> 
> If you'd like to keep up to date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter (@dearlyskies)!  
> Yoi Otoshi O also has a tumblr where you can see all the characters as I finish their art! (dr-yoiotoshio.tumblr.com)!


	5. Arc 1: Chapter 1

Arc 1-1: I thought I could protect everyone

At precisely seven in the morning, a hidden compartment in Ayaka’s room opened, scaring her despite this being routine for all three meals in the previous two days. Food on a tray was slid onto the ground beside the tea room where she usually enjoyed her meals while looking out the window. Today’s breakfast is souffle pancakes with a side of a fluffy egg omelette and diced fruits, water in a closed cup stood at the corner of the tray furthest from the tea table.

The girl opened the cup, feeling the air above it to see if it was warm or cold water. Determining it to be the latter, she grabbed the electric kettle from where she stowed it in the closet, plugging it into an outlet in the wall, and began pouring in the water in. She adjusted the maximum temperature to be just right for her and started eating her pancakes. It was purely decent as she had no syrup or whipped cream on top, nor ice cream on the side, but she couldn’t complain as it was better than her own cooking.

She watched the outside world as she poured the now hot water back into her cup, adding the instant green tea mix, and stirring delicately. Bugs were climbing the thick bamboo planted outside, sometimes stopping to observe their surroundings, then proceeding. No birds ever stopped in the forest of bamboo, nor any other animals, it was only bugs. The world was completely devoid of the morning aria of chirping avian animals, as well as the distant calls of fluffy creatures looking for mates, family, or competition.

Breakfast soon finished, and Ayaka placed the empty plate back to where it had been delivered. She sipped silently at her green tea, humming a song to herself as she sat in silence. Though it would be a good idea to check on the other guests with the chat function of the tablet, Ayaka decided to ignore it for just a little while longer to bask in the calmness of the morning. No doubt the boys she met at first would be in the game room again soon; Kenta would likely do his rounds momentarily to check on everyone in person. Once Kenta had come by for his check, Ayaka had planned to ascend to the secret room above her own room. 

An unknown amount of time went by as Ayaka continued to wait for Kenta to do his rounds. It was brighter outside, signaling that the sun was coming over the forest of bamboo and shining down onto the hotel.

Longer she waited, getting more nervous as minutes went by and she heard neither footsteps or people talking outside. Anxiety settled in Ayaka’s head as time passed, the silence becoming unnerving rather than relaxing. Perhaps what the mechanical bird had said about their situation was enough to make someone act mere hours after they were told their situation. This idea festered in the girl’s brain more and more as she began imagining the horrible ways anyone here could be killed, pictures of previous victims she was asked to help put to rest overlapped with the faces of the guests.

Two soft knocks were heard on the door of the room and Ayaka scrambled to answer it, opening the door furiously to see Kenta’s darker skin barely covered by a torn, black denim vest. His usually styled hair hung messily on either side of his face, dark circles clear under his eyes. “Hey there, good morning, how’s it goin’?” he asked, noticing the obvious distress on Ayaka’s face. 

She sighed and hugged him tightly. “This will sound weird but I imagined you dead when you were late...”

“I was considering not making rounds, but I figured not everyone would be actively looking at their tablets,” Kenta explained, giving Ayaka a pat on the head. “Well, now that I see that you’re fine, I’ll get going and see how everyone else is doing. Hit me up on the chat if you need anything.”

She waved the other off, watching him knock on the next door, say a greeting, then continue. He glanced back at her, smiled and waved again, then went along with his business. Figuring that since nothing happened, Ayaka retreated back into her room, picking up the tablet from where she placed it beside her bed and tucked it into her jacket pocket. 

The closet door opened with some force. She cleared the closet of the extra bed items before going to a corner and kicking it lightly, listening to the mechanical sounds before going back to the closet. Stepping into the area with the ladder, Ayaka looked up and studied the hole in order to figure if she could climb up while carrying a futon and blankets or if she would have to toss it up to the best of her ability.

With the hole she had to climb through already a bit tight for herself, she had to toss the futon, blanket, and pillow up. It took a longer time and more strength to get the futon up than the other two items. She went up into the secret area and arranged the extra bed neatly, mimicking her own room by placing the bed in the same spot where her bed is below. To ensure no one would figure where she was, the girl closed the closet door from the inside then went up again.

Ayaka took the tablet out of her jacket pocket, slipping the jacket off of her arms as well before laying down and checking for any changes. There were yet to be messages in the chat functions, and the social function was untouched by the guests. It would not be difficult to send a message but Ayaka felt that it was an unnecessary action to take. She was generally unaware of the personalities of most of the other guests and didn’t want to incite any type of anger in the already stressful environment.

Deciding that there wouldn’t be much of a reason to continue lingering on the yet empty portions of the tablet, Ayaka opened up the map again, studying it and looking for anything where secret rooms could be located. She didn’t have much luck, only seeing the empty space where the game room is and another empty space she trusted Kenta to have already checked. Of course, while the bathing area lined up perfectly with the dining room and kitchen, the rooms fell short. She could for sure go and find out for herself if there was a secret area there but with all of the trouble she went through just to get her extra bed up into this space, going back down into her main room was not on a list of things she wanted to do.

A lot was already going on in her head, and trying to figure out why all of these graduates of Hope’s Peak were here only to be put into a game of life and death was already becoming quite an energy drain. The map and rules gave no clues, and there were no supplies available to contact the dead through safely so trying to find an easy way out of this situation would be more difficult than anyone else would think.

Letting her head rest carefully on the pillow, Ayaka placed the tablet aside and laid peacefully atop the bed. It was still quite early and her sleep was disrupted by the morning announcement to gather all guests to the front as they did days earlier. She turned onto her side and attempted to drift back into sleep.

Minutes passed, then half an hour, but sleep refused to come. Her body yearned for rest, but in spite of her best efforts to be calm, there was no rest to be had. The Medium turned onto her opposite side, curling the blanket tightly around her thin body in order to feel safe but it only made her feel more uneasy in the situation.

She knew she was safe and would be fine in the secret room but she just couldn’t feel that safety. Frustrated, she sighed and picked up the tablet again, pressing lightly on the power button to a display she had never seen before.

YOUR PROMISE:  
I will not assist the living or the dead.

The message struck panic into Ayaka’s mind and heart, the change very much unwelcomed. Was this the motive previously mentioned? It had to have been, there’s not way this is just some message that shows up every once in a while, nor would she have made such a Promise to another human. She tapped the screen to see if that would cause the message to leave her screen to no avail as it remained as an ominous message in front of her eyes.

Ayaka put the tablet down once more, running her fingers through her hair frustratedly as she let out a sigh. The exhaustion was finally taking over her mind as her eyes felt heavier than before. There was nothing she could do this early in the morning, with or without this odd Promise given to her so she turned to her side, curled around a pillow, and drifted off to sleep.

\--The next day--

Chatter could be heard downstairs and outside the room belonging to Ayaka, stirring her from her sleep. She couldn’t make out any of the words she heard, only recognizing each person by their voice. It was Kenta, Aria, and Mayuki. The girl got up from her bed, lazily putting on one of the readily available yukata and climbing down. The breakfast tray she had already cleared was still waiting for the machine to take it back, in the same position it would always be in. Nothing else in the room was touched which reassured Ayaka that no one had intruded while she had slept.

She opened the door to the hallway and saw all three of the recognized guests just in front of the hallway to the lobby. Aria looked over at Ayaka with something like worry on her face as she stopped abruptly during her sentence.

“What’s... what’s going on?” the Medium asked, shuffling over quietly. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Aria was obviously holding back her tears as she blurted out, “Ren won’t talk to me, he won’t even come near me! I haven’t seen him since we got our Promises yesterday and no one else has seen him either... I tried to message him with the tablet’s chat but he’s only reading my messages. Kenta and Mayu also tried to message him but he’s not responding to them either so I’m really scared...”

Mayuki kept typing furiously into her tablet, likely to Ren to find out what’s going on with him, while Kenta tried to comfort Aria, explaining it probably had something to do with his Promise and he’s probably still fine. Then, someone made Ayaka question the Promises: What happens if someone goes against their Promise? Would there be a punishment? And what would that punishment be?

The Punk Singer looked over to Ayaka, questioning her with his eyes. She went a few door down to where she remembered Chise Mura’s room being, knocking on it and waiting for an answer. The tall girl opened up the door a little while later, looking as if she just woke up. “Pagan idiot here, what’s the deal?” she groaned, rubbing her eyes. Upon seeing Ayaka standing there, Chise slouched a small bit and grinned at her. “Hey there, darling, what’cha need from me?”

“I need to find someone and I don’t have the proper protection on my own. I thought you might have something in your room,” she explained, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Hmm... you’re in luck. Despite having no memory of this place, I woke up to find a whole altar and a box of my tools in a cabinet. Do you want to come inside or do you need to be in another space?”

“The lobby would be the best place, it’s the most centralized area. Do you mind, though? If it’s a lot, I’ll help you with it.”

“It’s in a small box so don’t worry about it. Do you... need to use my tools? I don’t mind but I think that’s a little bit on the troublesome side of things.”

“There’s no need, I just need your protection.”

Kenta watched the conversation between the two like a proud parent, but still making sure Aria was emotionally fine. Ayaka and Chise went off towards the lobby, still discussing what they were meant to be doing. “Do you think you can still find him? It’s been at least a day since he’s disappeared from what I heard out here.”

“It’ll be difficult, but I can probably still use the strong attachment between Aria and Ren to figure it out,” the Medium explained, pulling her hair into two tight buns at the back of her head and securing them with bracelets she wore. “I need my attire and Aria, I’ll be right back.”

Ayaka rushed down the hallway and returned to her room, looking all over the room for her more official outfit she wore on the second day. There was little time she could waste with Aria in such a messy state as she is, and so she hurriedly pulled on her dress and jacket, fastening her thigh-high socks with her garterbelt, and slipping on shoes onto her feet. She left her room shortly after, approaching the lolita girl. “I really need your help. You have a really strong connection to Ren and I need to use that to find what happened to him or where he is. Can you help me with that?”

The other girl nodded her head, tying up her hair into a low ponytail and following Ayaka to the lobby where Chise set up a mostly completed circle of crystals, unlit candles, and sprinklings of some powder. Ayaka stepped into the circle, followed by Aria, then Chise who closed the circle, lighting the candles, then giving the other two space in the area to exist.

“You may ask me a question you wish to know the answer to, but if it pertains to a person, please use full names, middle names if available. It needs to be a clear question that can be answered with a yes or no, nothing difficult since I do not have my full setup readily available. And... begin.”

The atmosphere of the lobby felt as if it changed, sparking no reaction from the two girls in the center of the circle but definite concern from Chise. Ayaka watched Aria as she conjured up a question, biting the nail of her thumb as she thought. “Is Ren Ota alive?”

A strong feeling made itself known to the Medium, the emotion being very positive and loving. Ayaka nodded her head to let Aria know the answer silently. “Can I... no, nevermind that question. Was it something I did or said?” Her voice shook as she carefully said the question.

This time, the feeling was negative, but not angry or hurt. The answer was simply that it wasn’t anything Aria herself had done. Ayaka shook her head. “Is it because of the motive?” A very quick angry and positive feeling overcame the Medium’s mind not even a minute after the words left the other’s mouth. Holding her head in her hands from the absolute strength of the feeling she experienced, Ayaka nodded her head. “I-I have no other questions!” Aria blurted, stepping back from the black haired girl.

Chise stepped between the two, blowing out the candles in the opposite order she lit them in and disassembling the circle, leading Ayaka safely away then ringing bells in the lounge loudly and erratically. “Hey, sit down,” she said, pulling a chair from a corner of the lounge for the other to sit. “Is it always like that for you?”

“No... it’s just here, I think. You didn’t feel it when you woke up here?” Ayaka asked, rubbing her forehead to ward off the headache from the aftermath of the events.

“Feel it? It smelled awful here,” Chise responded, gagging at the memory of the smell. “But, if it’s not Ren that’s dead... who is?”

“Is?” Ayaka asked. “I didn’t notice it until you said so but there is an absence... Can you go check Utako’s room? She’s the Tarot Card Reader.”

“You don’t think...”

“She said it herself. I’ll clean your circle for you, I just need you to go.”

Without a moment of hesitation, Chise bolted. Kenta followed, not knowing what was going on but needing to be there if something important was about to happen. Aria came back to Ayaka with a cold bottle of water, handing it to her and sitting beside her. “Thank you,” she mumbled. “And I’m sorry.”

The Medium drank the whole bottle swiftly, wiping the corner of her mouth with her jacket. “Don’t worry about it. I’m used to this. But at least you have your answers.”

“But you suffered for it! I should not have asked if I knew it would be this much on you...” Aria bit her nail again, her leg shaking as she sat with Ayaka. “Why did you help me, though...? You did not have to.”

“I wanted to test something. Nothing happened during or after so now we just wait and see,” Ayaka said, watching Aria’s reaction. “I went against the Promise assigned to me so I wanted to see what would happen. I get the feeling being here until there is only one of us left is going to take a while so we had better figure out the punishments now and use it to the best of our ability.”

“Your Promise... was it something to do with your talent? Mine is kind of pointless... it told me to not eat anything, which really is not a problem since I kind of do not like eating to begin with. Ren usually has to force me to eat and that mostly consists of horrible Russian accents and silly plane noises.”

“Yeah, mine was to not assist the living or the dead. That goes completely against my talent and my nature so how am I supposed to obey that? Though, if it were any other Promise, I probably would have kept it. Especially if it had to do with secrets.”

“Oh, uh, I should probably leave you be! You just went through a lot for me, do you need help getting back to your room?”

“That’s quite alright. I have the feeling that I am going to be called somewhere very soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have so many things and projects I have planned such as a comic I will be posting to Webtoon called Expletive, and I also have a LOT of other art projects that I would love to share with you all!
> 
> If you'd like to keep up to date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter (@dearlyskies)!  
> Yoi Otoshi O also has a tumblr where you can see all the characters as I finish their art! (dr-yoiotoshio.tumblr.com)!


	6. Arc 1: Chapter 2

Arc 1-2: Turns out, I can only protect myself

Aria left Ayaka in a hurry to look around the hotel once again, disappearing towards the onsen and shower area. The Medium kept rubbing her forehead, sometimes pressing the now empty but still cold bottle of water to her head to help with the headache which resulted from her attempting to help. From the doors to the outside came a tall and tan boy wearing a green, knit sweater. His small rose earrings reminded Ayaka that this was Bara Ibara, the Floral Language Expert.

Bara scanned the shop and desk then spotted Ayaka sitting in the lobby. He gave her a smile and waved before walking over to her. “You look, beat, what... oh, what is going on with the crystals?” He looked at the circle of crystals, candles, and eggshell powder while Ayaka observed him herself.

“We were trying to find Ren Ota, I guess he disappeared yesterday when the Promises were given out on our tablets and his girlfriend, Aria, was freaking out.” 

“Hmm. Well at least he’s still alive. I wonder if someone’s going to act out soon. By the way, have you seen the flowers around here? They are so beautiful. I spotted some cherry blossoms starting to bloom outside while I went for a walk. There’s even some hydrangea in the back. I still haven’t spotted any animals, which is odd, but I will choose not to question it for a while longer.”

Something about the way Bara spoke seemed odd to Ayaka. “Did you see anything else outside? Like the other guests or maybe that weird crane?”

“Nope, nothing outside. I wasn’t really looking, though, but I would have noticed something like that for sure.” His answer was immediate but not rushed. “Why do you ask? It’s way too early for anything to happen anyway, right?”

“I guess. Well, I suppose I should clean this up. Were you going to go take a bath?” Ayaka asked before standing up and approaching the closest candle.

The tall boy shook his head, shrugging and stretching. “I already showered, I need to get some more sleep, though. I couldn’t sleep at all last night, spent all of the time tossing and turning. It was awful!”

“Right... Well, you go get some sleep and I’ll see you later, yeah?”

With that, Bara Ibara took off to the rooms and Ayaka began rounding up Chise’s supplies. None of the items seemed all that noteworthy, they seemed like something she picked up from a 100 Yen shop despite the shop-owner aura she had about her; a few cheap dishes for holding salt, a tiny glass cup, a stone bowl, some jars with cute designs and a metal lid. Well, the candles were probably from her own stock. The Medium rounded up all of the supplies into the small box Chise took with her, neatly stacking the dishes and laying the candles into a perfect formation.

It wasn’t long before Chise and Kenta returned to the lobby, one looking concerned and the other looking confused. The Wiccan was the first to say anything, “She’s not in her room. Kenta looked in the bathroom and around for anything hidden and we didn’t find anything.”

Ayaka nodded, understanding what had to be done. “I packed your equipment for you, I’ll try and find her. Can you keep an eye on the rooms? A lot of times, the first person to come around and ask questions is the killer.” Chise nodded, took the box from where Ayaka was and went back to her room. 

“I’ll go to the bathroom area just in case, the back area of the men’s outdoor bath is open,” Kenta mentioned as he started to take off. “Can you check the chat, also? Some of the things people were saying seemed kind of weird.” When the girl nodded and left the lobby to go outside, Kenta also made his way out of the lobby.

The receiving area of the hotel had a circular driving way where cars could stop and unload then leave, but the parking lot was completely closed off as it was surrounded by chain fencing. Ayaka’s first thought was to make sure nothing was within the confines of the parking lot and be absolutely certain there was no door. She had never explored the outside but now was as good a time as any.

As she got closer and closer to the lot, she saw each post secured into the ground with concrete and the fencing itself was practically untouched, almost looking as if it was just bought from a store only days prior with its immaculate finishing and the rubber coating on the joints completely intact. Just as she suspected, there was no form of door to enter or exit the parking lot but the fact that it was closed off was odd.

Moving on, Ayaka went around towards where the outdoor baths would be. Just as Bara mentioned, there were cherry blossom trees starting to bud and bloom as well as bushes lining the side of the building. As she rounded the corner, she saw the outdoor bath filled to the brim with steaming water, littered only by leaves. Kenta was on the other side of the glass back (fully clothed). He made his way to the door to meet up with Ayaka. “It’s clean inside and outside. Did you find anything?”

“The parking lot is completely closed off. It’s surrounded by fencing but there’s no door or gate to enter... and it’s clean like it hasn’t been touched since it was placed. I didn’t go down or up the street but I got a bad feeling from either direction. If something happened, it would be within the hotel,” she explained. “Why only the men’s side...? The women’s bathroom is closed off on all sides. Maybe because it opens to the outdoor seating area? It’s so weird.”

Kenta shrugged and held the door open for Ayaka to come back inside. “I’ve been awake for a while and I didn’t hear anyone in the game room or that dining hall. Do you think we should check them?”

As the girl rushed along to exit the bathing room, she looked back at Kenta as he ran his hands through his hair. “I’ll check the dining hall and kitchen but can you stay with me? If we do run into something, I don’t want to be alone with it.”

“Uh, yeah. I’m not great with dead things but if you need me to be with you then I don’t mind.”

The two went on their way down the hallway and back to the lobby. Ayaka pulled her tablet from her jacket to read the chat as Kenta had asked previously, scrolling back to the top then reading down. She mentally took note of anything Utako had said, and read closely to anything that could have clued her into anyone’s Promise. Nothing the Tarot Card Reader said could have clued her into her Promise, and she definitely didn’t mention that she was expecting to be killed. Maybe a few messages were meant to be instigating someone but nothing more than that.

“Did Chise tell you?” The Medium muttered once she finished with the chat logs and went to check on the social function.

“I figured something was up but I didn’t think it would be that someone actually tried to murder someone else,” the other responded with a sigh. He hid his hands in the pockets of his shorts and shook his head. “I was hoping that everyone here would be a lot more... I don’t know... compassionate for one another?”

“At least four of the people alive here are of the returning of old religions, myself included. Chise took an oath to not harm other beings so she wouldn’t dare touch even a hair on another person. Sora is an Astrologist and it seems quite obvious to me at this point that he has in the past taken that oath but if he still adheres to it is another thing. I never spoke the oath myself but that doesn’t mean I would try and kill another person.”

“So, who’s the fourth? I don’t know a whole lot about any religion of any sort so I need a bit of help here...”

“Utako Ikeda, the younger sister of Kouki Ikeda. I knew a bit about her from before: she was the black sheep of her family and she knew she was going to be the first to be killed. She was a good person who doesn’t deserve a premature death, even if it was what was meant for her by her divination. Were it not for this hotel, she would have lived a long life.”

“Wait, she knew?”

“While I was taking a shower a while ago, she told me the reading of her tarot cards. I’m not supposed to share my own reading to another as a fate worse than death would befall me and my family but her own... she was meant to be a martyr for us. I don’t know who it would have been otherwise but she was confident and accepted the fate she was given... I was hoping there would be more time between then and her death but some people seem to want to get out of here quickly.”

“I thought all of that stuff was just a bunch of nonsense... but I guess since I just watched you determine that Ren was still alive then I can’t just ignore it, either. But, how does it work?”

“Can I... explain that to you another time? It’s difficult for me to explain things when I’m stressed out but I promise I will tell you when I can.”

Approaching the hall in which the dining hall and game room were opposite one another brought intense emotion to the front of Ayaka’s mind. “She’s here somewhere... but I can’t tell which way... this sucks. Let’s try the kitchen, no one would hide a body right in the dining hall.”

“Are you sure? I mean... it could very well be in the game room since I think only a few people know about it,” Kenta asked, pressing on the wall to find the specific section again.

“I’m really not but I don’t think I’m ready to see a body just yet. If we can set some time between now and us finding her body, then I can mentally prepare myself, and you can do the same.” Ayaka went into the dining room, finding it much easier to enter it without being restricted by the provided clothing. “Then again, I’ve seen cases where they found the corpse in parts across a home. I don’t want to see that again, though.”

The Punk Singer, following closely behind the Medium took in a deep breath. “You’ve seen a lot of shit, have you? I’m not exempt from my fair share of spooky and creepy things but dead humans are not on that list.”

“It comes with being contracted with detective agencies, especially when it comes to cases they found a little too hard to solve. I have a slightly better sense of things than those people, and they usually try to find a simple answer rather than take into account that we have some really awful people out there.”

Once they saw that the dining room was clear of a body, they went towards the kitchen. The smell of food was faint but someone definitely had prepared food some time in the last three hours in the kitchen. She searched the counters, island, and stoves to find any dishes but discovered nothing. “You don’t have to look around with me, by the way. If bodies make you sick or uncomfortable, then don’t force yourself.”

“I was going to offer to help but I don’t think I can handle it very well...” Kenta mentioned, shuffling the cooking tools around in the drawers. “Everything is really clean in here, not even a bug, mold, or anything.”

“I would hope so. This is a three star hotel from the looks of things. I just don’t understand why I smell a meal but can’t find any trace of one.” Ayaka went to the walk-in fridge, opening the door to look around and find nothing. Another let down. The same could be said for the pantry, but the contents seemed to have been messed with a bit since the last time she and Kenta had been in there. 

“Did you look in the oven?”

Ayaka turned around abruptly. She was used to Japanese kitchens not having ovens, not large ones, but she also didn’t find a smaller oven that would have been used. “There’s an oven here?”

“Yeah, it’s in the wall. That tapestry over there hides it, though. I thought you’d have seen it the first time you came in here.” The Punk Singer lifted up a long fabric that was hanging and covering an oven that was built into the wall of the kitchen.

The Medium opened up the oven door to find a large stew pot inside. She touched it to find it was still quite warm then pulled it out to place it onto a rolling cart. It smelled quite good at first but it had a sour and bitter scent after a little while in her nose. “I think I know how she was killed, at least... hopefully. That means a lot less mess to deal with... again, being hopeful here.”

Kenta left his spot with the tapestry to find a lit for the large pot. “We’ll need to preserve this. I don’t think we have anything to test it but just in case.”

“Well, we’ve checked everywhere we know about. Time to look in the game room... you know that this has to be where she is, right...? You don’t have to come all the way down with me.”

“On the contrary, in the guidelines, at least three innocent guests have to witness the body before an announcement goes off, right? I’ll just add to the count of people who have to see her body so that more people don’t have to.”

Ayaka had almost entirely forgotten about the rules, forgetting that this is a game to some twisted person that was watching them all like it’s some sort of show. “Then, you better prepare yourself. It won’t be gruesome but it will still be somewhat shocking still.”

The two made their way back into the hallway, Kenta moving ahead to kick open the door to the secret room and then moving aside. Both were nervous as they descended, and rightfully so. Ayaka was hit immediately with the obvious death smell, but Kenta was completely unharmed. As they came down to the bottom of the stairs, the top of Utako’s head could be seen just barely poking over the armrest of a couch in the far corner. They came closer then saw her curled up as if meant to be hidden or hiding, deceased. 

No wounds, no breathing, Utako Ikeda was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have so many things and projects I have planned such as a comic I will be posting to Webtoon called Expletive, and I also have a LOT of other art projects that I would love to share with you all!
> 
> If you'd like to keep up to date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter (@dearlyskies)!  
> Yoi Otoshi O also has a tumblr where you can see all the characters as I finish their art! (dr-yoiotoshio.tumblr.com)!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have so many things and projects I have planned such as a comic I will be posting to Webtoon called Expletive, and I also have a LOT of other art projects that I would love to share with you all! 
> 
> If you'd like to keep up to date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter (@dearlyskies)!  
> Yoi Otoshi O also has a tumblr where you can see all the characters as I finish their art! (dr-yoiotoshio.tumblr.com)!


End file.
